1. Field
This invention concerns a unique breech device for archery bows, i.e., for target or hunting bows, especially for compound bows, and particularly concerns a firing mechanism therefore, wherein the bow string is retained by a releasable latch mechanism such as a conventional keeper, which breech device can be quickly removably mounted on the archer's hand (fingers) by a sling device.
2. Prior Art
Heretofore, many bowstring release or firing mechanisms have been proposed, a few of which are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,041,926; 5,448,983; 4,567,875; 4,309,975; 4,458,659; and 4,022,181, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein in their entireties. Such mechanisms typically are encumbered in one or more of the aspects of structural complexity, cost of manufacture, dimensionally too large for rapid deployment in the field, difficult to use rapidly and to recock, bulkiness when stored in pockets or the like or when simply being held in the archers hand, lack of smoothness and accuracy in use, excessive physical abuse of the bowstring upon repeated firings, cocking of the mechanism requiring excessive motion by the archer which is visible to game, a partial pull of the trigger cannot easily be retracted where the archer changes his mind not to shoot at that particular instant, or requires too much time to retrieve from a pocket or the like and properly affix to a bowstring.
A more sophisticated firing mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,706B1, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety. As shown in FIG. 1 of this patent the type of bowstring keeper which is preferred for the present invention is shown as item 54 and the preferred latch arrest shoulder means is shown as roller 29. Also useful with the present invention is the finger sling 80 of this patent and its operation. As will hereinafter become apparent, difficulties in the use of the trigger member 32 in this patent arises from the fact that the trigger is in a form which requires a conscious finger action of squeeze or pull for firing, wherein the finger action is essentially disassociated from the pulling action of the archer which emanates mainly from the archers shoulder and back muscles. This independent finger action generates its own force vectors which typically are not aligned with the archers pull axis and results, for example, in a sideways jerking of the bowstring, albeit of small degree but quite significant to shooting accuracy.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,430B1, a firing mechanism is disclosed which automatically releases the bowstring when a threshold pull force is applied. However, a safety device is required to prevent premature release of the bowstring, which device is particularly necessary in the use of compound bows as will hereinafter be more fully explained, and the archer must manually unlatch the safety device by finger manipulation in order to fire.